Learning Objectives:

How does corruption affect the fight against HIV/AIDS?

Introduction

“Corruption drains resources and discourages investments. It benefits the privileged and deprives the poor. It threatens their hope for a better quality of life and a more promising future.”
Former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, September 24, 2005

International and domestic funding for AIDS has grown substantially in the last decade. According to UNAIDS, AIDS funding was expected to stand at just under $10 billion US by the end of 2007. This is almost a forty-fold increase since 1996, when the figure was $260 million US. The increase in funding has, to a large extent, been made possible through a series of new funding initiatives and mechanisms, notably the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank's Global AIDS Programme and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). At the same time, low and middle-income countries have also increased domestic spending on HIV/AIDS. Their spending represents approximately one third of all the money going into the global AIDS response .

The enormous increase of funds available for HIV/AIDS has brought with it new challenges, namely how to ensure that the funding is used effectively and efficiently. It has also created multiple opportunities for corruption.

This unit looks at some of the links between corruption and HIV/AIDS and where this type of corruption can occur. It also looks at how corruption in relation to HIV/AIDS can be addressed, and in particular what role parliamentarians can play in curbing corruption.